As known, pyrolysers are reactors adapted to perform the pyrolysis process: pyrolysis is a process for the thermo-chemical decomposition of organic substances, such as for example biomasses, obtained by applying heat, and with a complete absence of an oxidising agent, normally oxygen, to perform a thermally induced homolysis: under such conditions, the organic substance is subjected to scission of original chemical links, forming simpler molecules.
It is also known that gassing devices exploit the same pyrolysis reaction through heating at the presence, however, of reduced amounts of oxygen: under these conditions, the organic substances are completely destroyed, dividing their molecules, generally long carbon chains, into simpler molecules of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and natural gas, that form a synthesis gas (syngas), mostly composed of natural gas and carbon dioxide, and sometimes pure enough to be used as such. Different from pyrolysers, which strictly perform the pyrolysis, namely with a complete lack of oxygen, the gassing devices, operating instead with small amounts of such element, also produce a partial oxidation. Currently, if organic substances are composed of biomasses, energy captured through the photosynthesis in such substances is freed, either by burning the syngas in a burner to exploit its heat or supply a steam turbine, or by using it as fuel for explosion engines, or obtaining hydrogen therefrom to be then used as fuel cells to produce electricity.
In a more and more growing context of searches for new alternative sources of energy production and waste disposal, the use of pyrolysers or gassing devices for thermo-valorising biomasses and wastes like agricultural and agro-industrial residuals, agricultural and forest virgin biomasses, forest and forest-cultivating residuals, wood and paper working residuals, allows obtaining great advantages, such as a reduced environmental impact both as regards production and as regards transport of produced syngas and good opportunities to re-use the resulting heat.
The prior art, however, does not propose solutions that provide for a combined, synergic and integrated use of at least one pyrolyser and at least one gassing device in a single integrated system, in such a way as to best optimise the operation through suitable thermal and energy cooperation. From the prior art, some systems are known, such as those disclosed in patents n. WO2007077685, US7,214,252, WO2007045291, NZ542062, US2007012229, KR940002987, KR20020093711, KR20020048344, CN2811769Y, that however are still very far from obtaining high efficiencies, since they do not provide for an actually synergic and optimised cooperation between their various components, in particular for pyrolysation and gasification.